Is Obama Who We Thought He Was?

Very interesting Barack... very interesting indeed.

I was just going over the list of Obama's newly dubbed cabinet members, and browsing some CNN.com articles... namely this one.

I'm just sort of flabbergasted at the normalcy of his cabinet, and the fact that he dubbed two Republicans to fill positions (keeping on Bush's Sec. of Defense Robert Gates as one of them.)

I'm just a bit confused though... and can you blame me? Here is a guy we conservatives were just terrified of. He voted to the left of Ted Kennedy in the Senate, appealed to every wacko leftist from Alec Baldwin to Maureen Dowd, and yet, these are the types of people that are mad at him!

I just can't get over it. The guy spends countless hours giving rousing speeches about how he would reach out across the political divide and welcome all kinds of ideas from all kinds of people. And you know what? Despite not being in office yet, the son of a gun has kept his promise.

I don't really know what to think. I'm still wary of him, especially on his stances on foreign policy, Gitmo, coerced interrogation, and the Iraq war, but I'm not totally freaking out either. The sky has stopped falling for the time being.

My favorite part of this whole thing is that he invited Evangelical preacherman extraordinaire Rick Warren to do the whole invocation thing.

Of course, the militant radical gays are all up in arms about it. I've got news for you. There are more Evangelical and traditional Christians in this country than gays and lesbians-- including many that crossed party lines and voted for Obama. Everyone has a right to believe what they believe. Just like people can believe in God and against abortion or gay marriage, you can believe what you believe too.

Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean anything. By being "outraged" at Barack's tolerance and belief in Christianity and legitimate leaders like Warren, liberals are just "revenge discriminating" and throwing the equivalent of a toddler's temper tantrum.

I'm sick of it.

And what I don't understand is why people think everyone has to be a part of everything-- otherwise there's no chance of success.

What these liberal groups are really saying is that we want minority groups OVER-represented in important cabinet positions. And another conundrum of liberal hypocrisy is making a big deal about what gender, race, or sexual orientation someone is in relation to job qualification.

So what you're saying is, a white guy, or straight Asian woman is the wrong choice for a position because they're not gay or disabled, or a member of the radical left? Not every workplace, television commercial, or party needs to look like a picture from a high school Spanish book-- you know the ones (The picture with the Asian girl, the white kid in the wheelchair, the black guy with braces, the Hispanic girl with short hair, and the sexually/racially ambiguous kid on rollerblades all hanging out together with a dog, supposedly speaking Spanish amongst each other?) Again... all of this bellyaching about qualified people getting cabinet jobs is nothing more than reverse discrimination and sets the "progressive" movement back on a daily basis. Normal Americans are tired of this BS, and it makes the far left look like whiny idiots. Just stop parading around your differences and then trying to force other people to accept them as mainstream.

Anyway--- back to Warren.

Rick Warren is a good man who speaks the word of God, and spearheads a number of charitable endeavors that make the world a better place. I wouldn't apologize for inviting him if I were Barack either.

It's just so ironically hilarious to me that these same "progressive" groups that were gushing about Obama from day one are now condemning the man for doing what he said he was going to do. He promised he wouldn't be a partisan a-hole, and so far, so good.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting soft here, but things could be a lot worse.

Look at it this way. Barack could have appointed a socialist nutcase like Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of Labor, and some other loon like Barbara Boxer or Charlie Rangel as something else. He could've asked Reverend Wright to do the invocation so he could preach his hateful message, but he didn't. It could be soooo much worse than Hillary and Bill Richardson. In these simple terms, I think he's doing alright so far, and I'm no longer beside myself as I was back on November 4th.

But...

Is this nothing more than a political ploy to get our collective guard down? Is he buttering us up? We will soon see...